


For The Hugs

by jalendavi_lady



Series: Winry And Roy series from fma_fic_contest [23]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Canon - First Anime, Community: fma_fic_contest, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-17
Updated: 2010-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-13 05:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/133414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalendavi_lady/pseuds/jalendavi_lady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roy's oven hasn't been preheating, and Winry has volunteered her help fixing it. During the process, she reveals just why she loves her job. Set after the first anime.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For The Hugs

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Repairs prompt at [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/fma_fic_contest/profile)[**fma_fic_contest**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/fma_fic_contest/) .

"So, this is your oven. And you said it's not preheating?"

"Only very slowly."

Winry stooped over and stuck her head in the oven.

"Roy?"

"Yes?"

"Has this heating element ever been cleaned?"

"That's supposed to be cleaned?"

She sighed. "When they get this splattered, yes! What do you do, cook things until they explode?"

"Uh, Winry..."

She laughed. "So that's why you have transmutation circles on the insides of the cabinet doors."

He didn't answer.

"First thing is to chip this muck off, then we can see if anything else needs doing." She backed out and pulled out the encrusted part.

His eyebrow raised when she turned around. " _That_ was in my oven?"

"Yes, this was in your oven."

...

After an hour, Roy was still chipping at the carbonized food with a screwdriver. "How did you learn how to fix an oven?" he asked. "They aren't like automail."

"And I suppose the mighty Flame Alchemist never does minor home repairs with alchemy," she verbally jabbed.

"Point."

She sighed. "It was just Grandmother and I. The local repairmen were in Ishbal, fixing engines. If something broke, somebody had to fix it. I know my way around older tractor engines, a little. But the oven... any time anything went wrong, I'd go poking, fixing, improving."

"So you got good at it."

"'Good'?" Winry laughed. "Roy, you really have no idea, do you?"

"No idea about what?"

She pointed at the window in the oven door. "That piece of glass, that keeps heat in but also lets you look inside? How long have those been around?"

He shrugged. "The oven came with the house. They didn't exist when I was a child. I saw them after the Revolution, when I started getting back on my feet."

Winry laughed. "You didn't bother looking around the kitchen while you were in Risembool back then, did you?"

She wouldn't have been surprised if he didn't remember, given the blow to his head bare days later.

But then he looked at her, clearly not accepting what he was remembering.

"I _invented_ that. While Ed and Al were running around the countryside."

He stared. "And you're working at the military hospital, living in an apartment..."

"...and generally liking my life. I can't actually afford to quit. And I'll admit freely that I'm definitely in it for the hugs."

He chipped off the last bit of debris. "The hugs?"

"When arm-amputees get to give their kids and spouses big firm hugs again. Those hugs make everything so completely worth it..."

"Winry?"

"Hmm?"

"You really are an amazing person."

She grinned, feeling her cheeks heat a little, then picked up the cleaned part.

"Now, let's see if that oven will work now, or if there's more wrong with it I need to fix."

...

Later, she realized it was the first time they'd discussed anything even tangentially related to her orphanhood, or happy intact families, in private without so much as a token nonverbal apology.

It felt good.


End file.
